The 2022 Seattle Seahawks are a playoff team after trading away the best quarterback in their franchise history.

The 2022 Seattle Seahawks are a playoff team after having swept the team that has owned their butts for over the last half decade, and who also won the Super Bowl last year.

The 2022 Seattle Seahawks are a playoff team who are quarterbacked by a guy who hasn’t been a regular starter in this league since 2014, but after being given this chance by Pete Carroll, blossomed into a pro bowl passer at age 32, stunningly.

The 2022 Seattle Seahawk are a playoff team because the 2022 Detroit Lions went into Lambeau Field (a place where they rarely win), and they beat Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers on the last game of the regular season.

Raise your hand if you saw all of this coming at the start of the season?

I’m one of the biggest, dopiest Seahawk homer Twelves who you will ever meet in your lifetime, and I didn’t see this happening. Nope. I gave a very wishful prediction at the start of the season that Seattle would get to a 8-9 finish with some thought of playing meaningful games in December, but I never anticipated Geno Smith would play this well, and carry it through the season, by and large.

So, yeah. I’m pretty darn happy to see my Hawks finish 9-8, and finding themselves in the playoffs with the help of Detroit.

I don’t know what’s to happen for this team in the coming offseason, and how different they will look next Fall. I don’t know if Geno is signed to a long extension, or a rookie quarterback will be battling Drew Lock for the starting gig. I don’t know if the 3-4 experiment on defense this year is permanently here, or if we see a shift back to his traditional 4-3 in order to be a better run stopping defense again. I just know that these 2022 Seattle Seahawks will be a memorable bunch for me.

I have no allusions of this team going on a deep post season run, either. All conventional wisdom would suggest that they will get creamed once again by the superiorly talented 49ers down in Santa Clara next Saturday, but for me, it’s not about going deep into the playoffs.

It’s about getting an extremely young roster to understand what it takes to get to the playoffs and how to play once they are there. If they actually do upset the 49ers, that would be as big of a euphoric joy for me as I’ve had in sometime, but I am not expecting it. In a way, that makes being in the playoffs more fun.

The Seahawks aren’t defending anything. They aren’t the class of their division. If the Rams would have been healthier this season, third place in the division might have been Seattle’s ceiling this year, and the severely banged up Rams did everything they could to spoil Seattle in this match.

But Seattle got through it with a win, and to me, that’s all that matters. They finished the season strong with back to back home wins that got them into the playoffs, ultimately. This was my big ask for them after they lost to the Panthers, 49ers and Chiefs all in a row in December.

There’s momentum to be gained in this now. There should be a feeling that, if the offense commits to Ken Walker III running the ball, good things are going to happen, and opportunities are going to had for other players if they get enough reliable quarterback play, like Geno Smith brought through most of the season. There should also be a feeling that, if the defense can limit the big explosive plays enough, there’s enough of a growing nucleus that, with another successful offseason of free agency and the draft, something can be built up again that can be pretty special in Seattle in the near future.

Getting this win against the Rams, as much of a struggle as it was at times, has meaning in these ways. Seattle avoided a second half of the season slide that would have maybe raised more questions about the future than provide answers. Finishing 8-9, after being 6-3 at one point, would have been a long talked about thing through the following offseason that potentially would have made Pete Carroll’s words of optimism ring more hollow.

Finishing 9-8 avoids that, and gives a better sense that the young defense is trending the right way, and the offense is probably a player or two away on the offensive line of being truly dominant (assuming that the quarterback situation is sorted out). I need to feel these trends as a fan.

These 2022 Seattle Seahawks are not a perfect team. They have blemishes on the roster. In my opinion, they need to be significantly more stout at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, but those are issues to address once free agency begins in a couple months, and probably the draft again.

What they have now going for them now, however, is chemistry, and grit. They will fight hard, they will fight together, and they will continue to grow together in doing so.

This is really what the opportunity is for them heading into this post season, in my mind. It’s about continuing to grow together, and that is critical in becoming a great team again.

I’m proud of these 2022 Seattle Seahawks. I’ve had fun watching Geno Smith surprise, and K9 dazzle, and Darrell Taylor finish strong after struggling for a while, and Tariq Woolen blossoming into greatness before our eyes.

I’ve loved watching Al Woods make big man tackles in the middle of this defense, and Cody Barton proving doubters wrong as he got way better during the second half of the season. I loved watching DeeJay Dallas shine in the last two games, and finally being used more as a runner.

The feather on the cap for me is ending this season sweeping a Rams team that featured a quarterback who many Seahawk fans wanted Seattle to go after last offseason (including myself). Geno Smith did not have a great game in this finale, but if I learned one thing this season, it’s that he’s definitely a better quarterback than Baker Mayfield is, and I take comfort in knowing that Pete Carroll knows way more about quarterbacks than he’s given credit for. This gives me great comfort going into 2023, actually.

So, yeah. I like what is happening with these Seattle Seahawks right now. Their season was up and down, but they feel like they are one more solid offseason away from being a real contender again.

They will have the fifth overall pick next Spring to take a player who can be a special addition. I’m not hung up on who it might be, or what type of position it should be. I just ask that they pick a guy who will truly be a special difference maker, and key building block.

But right now, let’s savior this season, and this opportunity to be in the playoffs with a chance to upset the 49ers. There is no expectation of Seattle doing that, and I kinda dig that. I dig it a lot, actually.

Go Hawks.